'Sailor' Malan was born in Wellington, Cape Province, South Africa.
He joined the South African Training Ship "General Botha" in 1924 and 1925 as a cadet at the age of 15, (cadet number 168), after which he joined the Union-Castle Line of the International Mercantile Marine Co. which later earned him the nickname of "Sailor" amongst his pilot colleagues.

In 1935 the RAF started the rapid expansion of its pilot corps, and Malan was one of the people who joined up. He learned to fly on Tiger Moth at an elementary flying school near Bristol, flying for the first time on January 6, 1936. He completed training by the end of the year, and was sent to join 74 Squadron on December 20, 1936. He was promoted to Pilot Officer in January 1937, and was appointed to acting Flight Commander of "A" Flight, flying Spitfires, in August. He received another promotion to Flight Lieutenant just before the opening of the war.

After fierce fighting over Dunkrik during the evacuation of Dunkirk on June 28, 1940, Sailor was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross having achieved 5 'kill' claims. During this battle he first exhibited his fearless and implacable fighting spirit. In one incident he was able to coolly change the light bulb in his gunsight while in combat and then quickly return to the fray. During the night of 19/20 June Malan flew a night sortie in bright moonlight and shot down two Heinkel He-111 bombers, a then unique feat for which a bar to his DFC was awarded.

Malan and his senior pilots also decided to abandon the "vic" formation used by the RAF, and turned to a looser formation based on the "finger four" that the Luftwaffe had developed just before the war started. Legend has it that on July 28 he met Werner Mölders in combat, damaging his plane and wounding him, but failing to bring him down. Recent research has suggested however that Mölders was wounded in a fight with No. 41 Squadron RAF.

On August 8th Malan was given command of 74 Squadron and promoted to Acting Squadron Leader.

On December 24th Malan received the Distinguished Service Order, and on July 22, 1941, Bars to the Order. On 10th March 1941 he was appointed as one of the first Wing Leaders for the offensive operations that spring and summer, leading the Biggin Hill Wing until mid August, when he was rested from operations. He finished his active fighter career in 1941 with 27 kills destroyed, 7 shared destroyed and 2 unconfirmed, 3 probables and 16 damaged, at the time the RAF's leading ace, and the one of the highest scoring pilots to have served wholly with Fighter Command during WW2.

After tours to the USA and the Central Gunnery School, Malan was promoted to Group Captain in 1941 and became Station Commander at Biggin Hill. Malan remained keen to fly on operations, often ignoring standing orders for Station Commanders not to risk getting shot down. In October 1943 he became OC 19 Fighter Wing, 2nd TAF, then commander of the 145 (Free French) Fighter Wing in time for D-day, leading a section of the wing over the beaches during the late afternoon.

In 1946 Malan left the RAF and returned to South Africa.

Adolph Malan died in 1963 from Parkinson's Disease, at the time a rare and essentially mysterious malady. A considerable sum of money was raised in his name to further study the disease, a fund that continues to this day.

The Battle of Barking Creek

74 Squadron saw its first action only 15 hours after war was declared, sent to intercept a bomber raid that turned out to be returning RAF planes. On September 6, 1939 "A" Flight was scrambled to intercept a suspected enemy radar track and ran into the Hurricanes of No. 56 Squadron RAF. Believing 56 to be the enemy Malan ordered an attack, and in the subsequent tragic battle pilots Paddy Byrne and John Freeborn downed two RAF aircraft, killing one officer, Montague Hulton-Harrop. This friendly fire incident became known as the Battle of Barking Creek. At the subsequent courts martial, the court accepted that the entire incident was an unfortunate error.

On the ground Malan was remembered as an inveterate gambler and often owed his subordinates money. Malan was older than most of his charges and although sociable and relaxed off duty spent most of his time with his wife and family living near Biggin Hill. He would soon develop a routine of flying the first sortie of the day and then handing the squadron to a subordinate while he stayed on the ground to do paperwork. Despite frosty relations after the Battle of Barking Creek he would often give command of the squadron to John Freeborn (himself an ace of note), showing Malan's ability to keep the personal and professional separate.

In the 1969 war film Battle of Britain the Robert Shaw character 'Squadron Leader Skipper' was explicitly based on Malan, as recounted by director Guy Hamilton in the documentary 'A Film for the Few', which was included with the 2004 Special Edition DVD release.

Rules of Air Fighting
Although not an instinctive, gifted pilot Malan was an exceptional shot and a very aggressive air fighter, and above all a superb tactician who instilled the methods and techniques he had honed in 1940 into successive generations of young fighter pilots who followed him. Malan developed a set of simple rules for fighter pilots, to be disseminated throughout RAF Fighter Command, which eventually could be found tacked to the wall of most airbases:

TEN OF MY RULES FOR AIR FIGHTING